In fact, she doesn't mention the fact that I've obviously been avoiding her, just sounds genuinely thrilled to hear from me, and as soon as I mention getting together she suggests Monday, which is rather keen, even for Portia.

Fierce, intense, vehement.

c.1370–1390, William Langland, Piers Plowman; published as “Passus XVII”, in Walter W[illiam] Skeat, editor, The Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman, together with the Vita de Dowel, Dobet, et Dobest, Secundum Wit et Resoun, by William Langland (about 1362–1393 A.D.): Edited from Numerous Manuscripts, with Prefaces, Notes, and a Glossary, [...] In Four Parts, part III (Langland’s Vision of Piers the Plowman, the Whitaker Text, or Text C; Richard the Bedeles; The Crowned King), London: Published for the Early English Text Society, by N[icholas] Trübner & Co., 57 & 59, Ludgate Hill, 1873, →OCLC, page 285, lines 82–85:

For men knoweþ þat couetise · is of ful kene wil, / And haþ hondes and armes · of a long lengthe, / And pourte is a pety þyng · apereþ nat to hus nauele; / A loueliche laik was hit neuere · by-twyne a long and a short.

For men know well that Covetousness has a keen will / And a very long reach of hands and arms / And Poverty's just a tiny thing, doesn't even reach his navel, / And a good bout was never between tall and short.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

1730, James Thomson, “Summer”, in The Seasons, A Hymn, A Poem to the Memory of Sir Isaac Newton, and Britannia, a Poem, London, Printed for J. Millan, near Whitehall; and A[ndrew] Millar, in the Strand, →OCLC; republished in The Works of James Thomson. With His Last Corrections and Improvements. In Four Volumes, volume I, London: Printed for A. Millar, in the Strand, 1766, →OCLC, page 93, lines 1256–1259:

This is the pureſt exerciſe of health, / The kind refreſher of the ſummer-heats; / Nor, when cold Winterkeens the brightening flood, / Would I weak-ſhivering linger on the brink.

Last night he had put down too much Potheen / (A vulgar blend of Methyl and Benzene) / That, at some Wake, he might the better keen. / (Keen—meaning 'brisk'? Nay, here the Language warps: / 'Tis singing bawdy Ballads to a Corpse.)

(transitive) To utter with a loud wailing voice or wordless cry.

(transitive) To mourn.

Related terms

keener

References

Anagrams

Enke, kene, knee, kène, neek

Hunsrik

Pronunciation

IPA(key): /kʰeːn/

Particle

keen

no, not any, not a

Declension

1Form used when the plural of the noun is the same as the singular

Further reading

Online Hunsrik Dictionary

Luxembourgish

Pronunciation

IPA(key): /keːn/

Rhymes: -eːn

Particle

keenm or n

no, not any, not a

Declension

Somali

Verb

keen

bring

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